Schadenfreude 249 (A Continuing Series)

Daily News:

It was a strikeout party for the Bronx Bombers.

The Yankees were fanned 18 times overall, a team record for a nine-inning game, on way to a 2-1 loss to the woeful Tigers on Wednesday night. The previous dubious mark was held by the 1999 World Series champion Yankees (17 strikeouts versus the Red Sox.) ...

Tigers pitcher Matthew Boyd junk-balled his way to a career-high 13 strikeouts, while Gordon Beckham hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the eighth inning to lift the woeful Tigers [who came into the game with a .169 team batting average] over the hobbled Yankees.

Yankees hitters have 65 punchouts through six games, a franchise first. ...

Already with 10 players on the injured list, the Yankees may soon add another. The oft-injured Troy Tulowitzki was pulled with a strained left calf, and is likely headed to injured list, Boone said. That group already out of action includes: CC Sabathia (knee), Giancarlo Stanton (biceps), Luis Severino, Miguel Andujar (shoulder), Aaron Hicks (back), Jacoby Ellsbury (this time, it's his foot), Dellin Betances (shoulder), Didi Gregorius (elbow), Jordan Montgomery (elbow) and Ben Heller (elbow). ...

A year after winning 100 games, the Yankees have opened by dropping two of three to both the Baltimore Orioles and Tigers, teams that combined for 213 losses last season. ...

Boyd baffled the Yankees with an offspeed-heavy arsenal. He had hitters spinning with over his slider, getting 13 swinging strikes while throwing the pitch 41 times. ...

Boyd became the first Tigers pitcher to open the season with consecutive double-digit strikeout games since at least 1908.

Greg Joyce, Post:

The Yankees had already been struggling offensively, but Wednesday they made the wrong kind of history.

The Bombers struck out 18 times against four Tigers pitchers, setting a new club record for a nine-inning game in their 2-1 loss at Yankee Stadium.

All 10 Yankees who took an at-bat struck out at least once, with Gleyber Torres and Mike Tauchman leading the way with three each. ...

"The time of day makes it a little challenging seeing," manager Aaron Boone said after the 4:07 p.m. first pitch. ...

The Tigers, of course, were dealing with the same shadows and only struck out eight times. ...

The Yankees mustered just five hits ... In the three-game series against the Tigers, they hit just .176, and their 34 strikeouts were tied for the eighth-highest count in a three-game series in club history.

Dan Martin, Post:

The Yankees opened the season with a pair of series against teams that figured to be among the worst in the majors.

Six games into 2019, and it's actually the Yankees who look like the dregs of the league.

They lost again Wednesday to the Tigers, 2-1, to close out a nightmarish homestand in which they dropped series to both Baltimore and Detroit and lost seemingly half their roster to injuries.

[T]he only positions not impacted by injury are right field (Aaron Judge), catcher (Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine) and first base (Greg Bird and Luke Voit). [When Troy Tulowitzki is officially shelved, the Yankees will have 11 players on the IL less than a week into the regular season.]

After Judge admitted hitters had started to expand their strike zone following Tuesday's loss to Detroit, the lineup was even worse in that area Wednesday, with 18 strikeouts.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead in the third, but even that inning was marred by a mistake. [With runners on first and second, Gleyber Torres hit a sharp grounder that seemed headed for left field, but the ball hit Judge's foot for the third out.]

Greg Joyce, Post:

It had been more than 24 hours since their latest injury, so perhaps the Yankees were due.

Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki exited Wednesday's series finale against the Tigers after three innings with a left calf strain, the team announced. ...

The Yankees signed the 34-year-old Tulowitzki in January to fill the gap at shortstop until Didi Gregorius returned from Tommy John surgery. The five-time All-Star had sat out all of 2018 after having surgery on both of his heels and missed more than half the season in 2017 with ankle and hamstring injuries.

Mark Fischer, Daily News:

Yankees Plan C For Ailing Troy Tulowitzki Is Prospect Who Was Once Shot

Before Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres joined the Baby Bombers wave, another infield prospect caught the Yankees' intrigue.

Thairo Estrada was poised to battle for a starting job last season before a botched robbery in his hometown left a bullet in his right hip.

Over a year later, it seems he's getting his big-league shot.

The Yankees plan to call up the 23-year-old, according to MLB.com, amid their latest injury casualty. Troy Tulowitzki left Wednesday's ugly 2-1 loss to the Tigers with a calf strain, and Boone told reporters afterward it's likely the oft-injured shortstop will be added to an injury list longer than a CVS receipt. ...

Estrada hasn't had much luck on the diamond since the fateful January 2018 night when two teens approached him and his wife as the couple dined in his native Bejuma, Venezuela.

Ken Davidoff, Post:

Three more games.

Three more games, over four days, before this Yankees season from hell faces its first bona fide test.

Three more games for this beaten-up and broken-down group to start acting like a contender, even if it barely looks like one.

The Yankees' season-opening homestand concluded with a thud and a dud — and, need we mention, yet another injury. Troy Tulowitzki didn't make it through his club's 2-1 loss to the terrible Tigers on Wednesday afternoon ... and surely he wasn't the only person who felt pain at this slog of a contest as the home team set a franchise record with 18 strikeouts and fell to a 2-4 mark on this young season. ...

Could you ever have imagined that this team would depart for its first road trip having lost series to both last year's worst team, the Orioles, and Ron Gardenhire's Motown tankers? Or that they would lose three everyday players (Miguel Andujar, Giancarlo Stanton and Tulowitzki) on top of the myriad guys who didn't even make it out of camp? Goodness, what a fiasco. ...

[T]he Yankees put forth a most feeble effort Wednesday, managing four singles and a double and giving Tigers starter Matthew Boyd the game of his life ... Gary Sanchez committed his fourth error, all of them of the throwing variety, in his five games. ...

The Yankees left Tampa with so much promise, despite the alarming outbreak of injuries. They leave New York fewer than two weeks later with anxieties and forced words of hope.